Radio-Ga-Ga

got mine from Acoustafoam.com, foam/lead/foam/choice of surface finish, zero fire rated and half the price of chandlers

Yes if the original is shot theres no point leaving it in place, on the other hand if its serviceable iether will do the job giving you belt and braces. Unless the makers instructions say there must be a filter before the pump I would fit it between tank and filter, eliminating any chance of pulling air through any of the filter joints.

The simplest way is a slide (a few inches of an OLD metal drawer runner would work, the ones before plastic rollers) fix one side of the slide to the mounting for the outer cable and mount the cable outer to the other side, your new cable pulls the slide complete with the existing outer and inner cable, opening the throttle, when the new throttle is in the closed possition the original works as normal.

The pump will work fine in series with the mechanical pump, it will just push the pumps vavles open. The return is as you suspect, leak off from the inector rail, a pump in it would do no good.

Metal/mesh dishes are very fragile and once bent are near impossible to fully repair. whatever brand I would go for one of the fibreglass dishes even though they are a lot more expensive. same as aerial (and other things in life) size is everything, a 30cm dish looks neat, but bigger means more signal, mine's a 60cm and works well for me but does look big on a narrowboat. some folk say smaller dishes are less prone to signal loss from boat rocking, but the jury is out on that, most mini dishes will give you a 60-70% signal at best, my 60cm shows 90-95% signal and when facing over the side of the boat (worst case for signal loss) no ammount of deliberate rocking will take the signal to less than 70%. 50% is usualy the point where the picture is likely to be lost. but you're bound to get different reponses so good luck with the final choice

As a single handed CCer (57 ft narrowboat) I can handle a boat as well as most, and better than many (including reversing). I rarely use the thruster and would never rely on it, but there are times when those with crew might resort to somebody on the bow with a pole to get out of trouble (including the anti-everything they don't want brigade), Those are the times when the thruster is my only crew! to be honest I only put my original post in this thread to see the reaction! and it was a total success!

Personaly I see no big advantage of the travelpower over a good inverter and large alternator. I spent some time when building my boat on the different options and as a live aboard I went for generator and victron 3000-120 multiplus, the quatro was not available at the time. I'm not sure though if the expense of a quatro would be justified, with generator or travelpower for large loads one of the smaller muli-plus units would be more than ample. Edited to add: The multi-plus units have power assist.

Glad you sorted it, it gets easier as you get used to it!

Yup! but it works!

How did this topic get to 3 pages long without anybody daring to mention steering with a bowthruster? Edited to add: I mean 4 pages now!

Sounds most likely a blockage, on most engines you would expect a jet of oil with the pipe off, and from the end of the pipe when connected, if the pressure is as low as it appears my guess is the engine would have given up long ago.

This is a common misconception, CV joints run happily straight or at an angle, the flexibility allows engine movement, but they should be installed to at least look straight, any deliberate offset will cause some loss of torque.

Just had a look at the quick start guide for it but I couldn't see a reference to the freesat channels, freesat is a set of something like 60 channels that include most of the freeview and a few others, If you check on the information screen for the box it will show the network ID this needs to say 003b, is anybody else getting Freesat on this reciever? Edited to add: are you sure your on the right sat? hotbird and astra are very close. If your not sure tilt the dish down until you just lose the signal then turn the dish slightly east, (anti clockwise looking from the top), if you find another signal that is astra 2

The Aquadrive dosn't have UJs it has CV joints one fixed one sliding. Exactly the same as a modern FWD car driveshaft, all thrust is carried on err, the thrust bearing

Not sure I can give you a full response, but freesat is on astra 2 – network id 003b I don’t know the various receivers well enough to say if yours could get freesat but if its analogue it can’t, if its digital it probably will with the right card if you post more info on the receiver somebody might shed more light on it.

Allways handy to have alternatives cheers!

100% Yes

The fram number is PH4386. out of interest what did you find?

They will if you use non automatic or wash up liquid!

Without flushing first you may get existing oil floating to the top - even after the fault is fixed I used to work as a motor mechanic, whenever there had been this sort of problem, after repair it was usual to fill up with clean water and automatic washing powder, then after a good run, drain and flush before the final fill, it prevented customers returning with the same symtoms even tho the fault was fixed.

My boat has the same engine but having never had a fault I can't say I know it too well, but oil and water mixing is usualy down to head gasket as per your own guess. I think I'd have the head off before I went too far unless somebody else is more familiar with it and knows another reason.

As far as I know waste pipe fittings have allways been a finer thread than BSP even back to the old copper stuff, tho I have no idea what thread it is Edited to add When I was fitting out my boat I found the easiest way to connect up was a hose fitting on the skin fitting and another on the plastic waste with a short bit of 1 1/2 sanitary hose between, tho if you heat up 1 1/4 waste with a heat gun and open it up with the round ended handle of a tool (trowel hand fork or similar) then push another piece of 1 1/4 pipe inside it, its the right size and sturdy enough to use 1 1/2 hose direclty on it. (if you use this idea use some washing up liquid or silicon grease)

I've never been on the southern canals but from far north to braunston area it's not a big enough change to need re-setting, out of interest there are some portable dishes with a bubble for elevation not sure how effective it is though, While you have your dish aligned it could be worth making a piece of tapered wood or similar with one side against the face of the dish and a level on the other it would be at least a good starting point.

That the big dificulty with sat, if your trying to set elevation and direction its very time consuming, you had the elevation set between the two, (three if you had a bigger dish that would find hotbird) you didnt say which one it was you were after but if your using freeview you wanted atra 2, the one a bit lower and anti-clockwisw (from above the dish) astra 1 should't show any signal strengh on a freeview box but hotbird will (both digital). That was the point of my first post, about using a vertical mast and never needing to set the elavation, with a small dish you wont find the wrong sat and with a bigget one you know its the 3rd one round and sends the meter to the end of its scale. but, long live terrestrial wont happen, when its digital only there wont be many aerials on narrowboats! (not ones that move anyway)

I use a (car} sat nav not just for direction but gives you other useful info, where you are in relation to roads and speed, canals wind arround so much that even in the deepest valley or in a forest you know before you stop the dish will be facing along the cut and you will get a signal. I'm a ccer (single handed) (just me, not one hand) most mooring spots are my first time there, a few months ago I tried to help the guy on the next boat get his portable dish working and could not get enough signal, tried it on my boat to eliminate other faults and exactly the same. Don't remember what make it was, but as much use as a rubber mooring pin!